notes—obama’s new “civilian military”
save “notes” have the links here, post with main article. “cross index” nah, too much trouble.
“as large as”
current military, personnel—
identified three websites, wikipedia.
u.s. military 1,473,900 plus 1,458,500 reserves plus 453,000 paramilitary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops
with regard to the paramilitary, be advised that the c.i.a. and other special ops groups are listed here, and some of them you never heard of before. they do not operate under insignia of the u.s. military, but often in concert with the military’s socom units. the paramilitary spoken of here is best known as s.o.g.. look at the knife advertisements in gun magazines, … , you’ll learn the initials . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division
branches of the united states military service, numbers of active duty
n army -- 548,000
n marine corps -- 201,031
n navy -- 332,000
n air force -- 323,000
n coast guard -- 41,000
n total active -- 1,445,000
n army guard -- 353,000
army reserve -- 205,000
mar. reserve -- 40,000
navy reserve-- 67,000
air guard -- 107,000
air reserve -- 67,000
c. guard res. -- 11,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_armed_forces
footnote: oddly enough, the united states government does not have a total monopoly on military force in the united states. the various states per the authority of 32 u.s.c. sec. 109 provides that such state forces may not be called into active duty into the armed forces of the united states, as a whole, though the feds reserve the right to draft individuals serving in such forces into the federal military, and the states are supposed to then discharge such drafted person from the state military. 22 states have active state forces, who operate with emergency management and homeland security issues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Defense_Forces
compare and contrast, the communist chinese military . chinese troop strength -- 2,255,000 plus 800,000 reserve plus 3,969,000 paramilitary --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops
russia -- 1,037,000 plus 2,400,000 reserves plus 359,000 paramilitary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops see: ^ "Russia's Armed Forces, CSIS (Page 32)" (PDF). 2006-07-25.
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/060626_asia_balance_powers.pdf
germany -- 284,500 troops on active duty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops
united kingdom -- 208,000 troops on active duty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops
iran’s military strength and budget, in u.s. $billions
active duty troops, 545,000 plus 350,000 in reserves plus 400,000 paramilitary, … , e.g., basiji’s & the like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_active_troops
iran’s military budge, circa 2008-2009 is miniscule, even compared to its persian gulf & arab neighbors. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2006/iran-060531-irna03.htm according to wikipedia, iran spent $6.2 billion on defense spending in circa 2005. i cannot find a further breakdown on the spending on its nuclear programs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iran#Defense iran has an “indigenous” defense manufacturing capability, but as in a lot of things “islamic/arabic” hyperbole seems to rule the day. iran has “produced” its own jet fighter, a copy of the f-5e american trainer, and so far, after several years of production, has made 6 of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAMI_Azarakhsh
it would seem that her eggs would appear to be in the nuclear basket.
“as well funded”
u.s. defense budget/annual spending --- fiscal year 2008 --- defense budget -- annual $668.6 billion,
app.
u.s. defense budget/annual spending, anticipated -- fiscal year 2009, by function --
-- $125.2 billion, personnel
-- $179.8 billion, operations & maintenance
-- $104.2 billion, for procurement
-- $ 79.6 billion, for research & development
-- $ 21.2 billion, for military construction
-- $ 2.9 billion, family housing
-- $ 2.7 billion, for “revolving” funds, christmas parties & the like, i suppose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_armed_forces
russian defense spending, circa 2008 & 2009 -- about $50 billion and rising. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/mo-budget.htm
chinese defense spending, circa 2008 & 2009 -- about $60 billion and rising.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/china/budget.htm
indian defense spending, circa 2008 & 2009 -- about $30 billion and rising.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/budget.htm
“as well equipped”
police personnel, u.s.—
the f.b.i. compiles a statistical base of crime statistics, called “crime in the u.s.” according to the 2005 compilation of such statistic, there were employed in year 2005 561,844 police employees in all cities in the united states. this averages 3.0 police officers per 1000 citizens, or 3% of the population as police employees, in cities.. table 70, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/police/index.html
this is not the entire story. table 74, considers all police officers for all agencies, and it is a considerably larger number than just for cities. the f.b.i. statistic for all domestic police employees in the u.s. for year 2005, and that figure is 969,070 police employees, or whom 673,146 are police, … , law enforcement officers. table 70 is broken down to reflect that of the 561,844 city police employees, some 431,590 are pistol packing ticket writing can arrest you sorry butt police officers, as per the definition below. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_74.html
a law enforcement officer is defined by the f.b.i. reporting to be an individual who carries a firearm and a badge, who has full arrest powers, and are paid by govt. funds set aside specifically for law enforcement. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/police/index.html
that is roughly 700,000 police officers in the united states. with 295,924 more civilian employees, who are in the service of the street officers, to include clerks, evidence technicians and the like. that is 969,070 police agency employees, as of calendar year 2005. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_74.html
wikianswers.com put the figure at 683,396 full time law enforcement officers in 2006, with an additional 120,000 full time law enforcement personnel, for a total of 800,000 or so civilian police officers. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_police_officers_are_employed_in_the_United_states
“federal police agencies”
d.e.a. -- 5,500 special agents (10,800 total employees) organized under the dept. of justice, under the direct command of united states attorney general, eric holder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Enforcement_Administration
f.b.i. -- 12,851 special agents, another 18,393 f.b.i. police officers, intelligence analysts, scientist, language specialists & , forensics analysts, research analysts, etc. under the supervision of congress: [now, that’s very reassuring to know that barney frank and al franken run the biggest federal police agency, ain’t it? laughing.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation
b.a.t.f. (tobacco, alcohol & firearms) -- 2,400 special agents and a total of 5,000 employees, and annual budget of $1,000,000,000 per annum. organized under the dept. of justice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Alcohol,_Tobacco,_Firearms_and_Explosives
i.c.e. (immigration & customs enforcement) [somebody had a large sense of humor, naming these clowns.] -- organized under the dept. of homeland security, with about 15,000 employees. and, i.c.e. contracts with an additional 15,000 private security guards to perform its function of protecting federal buildings, and the like. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement
an additional list of federal govt. security agencies --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_law_enforcement_agencies if this isn’t enough to make your pee run cold, i don’t know what will, save cooling to room temperature at death.
get budget figures for the feds.
point—
for years, demo’s opposed military spending. now they want to equal it. why?
the color is brown.
to be added to “as well equipped”
i suspect that obama hasn’t got the foggiest fucking notion what the u.s. military has stored in the cupboards. what a fucking doofus.
“as well equipped”
land vehicles -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_currently_active_United_States_military_land_vehicles
m1 abrams main battle tank
m2/m3 bradley fighting vehicles (which, contrary to press reports, fared rather well in iraq, and even stood off an occasional iraqi tank.)
armored personnel carriers
--stryker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stryker
thermal imaging fire control, armored way past any civilian threat, and armored w/ .50 caliber machine gun, to which civilians are not terribly resistant. plus it will carry 9 fully armed troops, and is quick, mobile and agile, designed for cavalry type assaults. pretty good at riot suppression, i would imagine.
--lav-25 … carries a crew of three, and a load of 4.
light armored vehicles
--humvee . ubiquitous. will carry anything from a tow missile to a .50 m-2 machine gun to a system that detects the location of sniper and returns accurate fire automatically. and, they have upgraded the armor on them, so that if ou intend to blow one up with an i.e.d. you better know what you are doing. a formidable weapon, proven in heavy urban combat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Mobility_Multipurpose_Wheeled_Vehicle
mine protected vehicles
--rg-31 … south african design, especially to meet the problem of land mine attacks on wheeled vehicles. Very, very good, and will pack a bunch of people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG-31
--rg-33 … more of the same, bigger, can carry more troops. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG-33
--international maxxpro … the marines like ‘em. got more of ‘em. they have a v-shaped hull and the chasis/drive train are outside the hull. very resistant to explosives attacks, and battle tested in urban and insurgent warfare in iraq and other places. nuff said. you ain’t gonna touch it with a bb gun. now how, no way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_MaxxPro
--the cougar … big. tough. fast. the marines like them. the u.s. has a bunch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_(vehicle)
aircraft
i have been to airshows in which the blue angels or the thunderbirds performed, and always they have a thing where one of the aircraft kind of sneaks off for a ways, and you forget about it, and when the air field clears of traffic this fellow comes in low and hot, just past the speed of sound.
see, the thing is, you don’t hear him coming from behind you, and you don’t hear him until he is well past you, and then, … , well, it is to be heard and experienced.
and, what occurs to me is, … , man, you’d be dead before you ever heard him.
which, i guess, is the point of it. laughing.
so, i am not gonna list fixed winged birds, except for one, well, two.
--the a-10 warthog. … the absolute best close infantry air support aircraft ever built, bar none. devastating firepower, sufficient to take out a tank from its 30mm gau-8 externally powered gatling gun, and it carries a lot of other very unpleasant stuff. it goes low and slow and has lots of loiter, which means it can stay proximate to protect advancing or retreating infantry for a long, long time. it is also highly maneuverable, and can dodge upcoming fire. finally, the pilot is protected in an armored tub, and the damn plain and air frame can obsorb incredible fire that would put an ordinary plane down, because of the “honeycomb” external skin structure. it is a devastating weapon. did i use that word already? Oh, yeah, and it has got advanced targeting systems up the ying yang. you ain’t gonna shoot it down with a .300 win. magnum, trust me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II
av-8b harrier ii … a very formidable plane as operated by the marine corps. it is capable of very forward operation, and can operate off of a short stretch of roadway or freeway. a very good plane, and probably quite effective in an urban or suburban setting. and, of course, as the marines fly it, it is capable of extremely close infantry support, and very deadly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV-8_Harrier_II
Rotary wing craft, … , that’s helicopters to you.
ah-1 supercobra … flying death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH-1W_SuperCobra
ah-64 apache. flying death. a very formidable weapon. low and slow and stand off. all those films from the iraqi wars, where the guy is watching the insurgent through infrared sensing, and just waiting to confirm the kill shot, and then, zap, up goes the poor bastard in a hail of bullets and dust. yep. the apache, most likely, or a cobra. target acquisition, and sighting, are done through computerized optics in the pilots helmet: he literally looks at you to kill you. how’s that for comforting? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH-64_Apache
observations.
1.)why does obama need this stuff? because he cannot get the guys who operate all this stuff to shoot your dumb butt, that’s why. because the military service are us, and the military service hates his ass. period.
george bush they understood. They in no way thought him infallible, but they liked him and understood where he was coming from. and, he didn’t treat them like he was a haughty superior bastard, and obama is incapable of treating anybody any differently.
so, they won’t kill you.
but, the guys obama wants to hire for his own little army will. and, this is the stuff that obama wants to give them. do you dig?
2.)so, just what has obama got up his sleeve that he needs a second military to contend with you? well, he sure as shit doesn’t need it to contend with anyone else, now does he, because he has already all the tools in the world to deal with that? think about that between games, if you will.
JJ-Great analysis of our military capabilities--pretty devastating against the odd citizen. I don't think Obama will have enough time or the juice to form up a comparable brown shirt private army. (Are those numbers correct for our current Army personnel?)
Regards,
Posted by: fightforfreedom | August 19, 2009 at 04:36 PM
fightforfreedom:
as to the numbers for our current army personnel -- they are now.
the website source shows 548,000 current active duty army personnel, and somehow that got into the notes as 48,000.
that error has been corrected.
as to what "b.o." can achieve in terms of building a private army.--
it remains to be seen.
some have suggested to me that he will merely make "americorps" service mandatory, and that this is nothing more than a glorified "vista" effort, as back in the days of the community action counsels. remember those?
i am not so sure.
if that is the case, why did both obama and rahm emanuel refer to this effort as an effort to create a "security" apparatus?
would it not have simply made more sense to it a community service organization, if what was meant to be delivered was "community service?"
why the continued allusion and reference to the united states military as a standard of reference? "as big as," "as fully funded as," "as fully equipped as" the united states military? what is the point of that, if people are to be teachers, and organizers, and carpenters and such?
and, there is the little matter that the u.s. military budget runs pretty close to 3/4's $ trillion.
my own view is that he will not say "my own little military." even the densest leftard might catch an ominous drift to that. laughing.
my guess is that he will suggest something, that when looked at critically, will have paramilitary overtones, and will also involve something that is tied into federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering capabilities.
do not be overly surprised if he recommends the creation of a "new department of ___________," to have direct supervision by his resident foil, eric holder in the attorney general's position.
and, perhaps a new cabinet position.
who are paramilitary?
well, the s.o.g. groups who are civilian employees of the central intelligence agency, for one.
the coast guard auxillary, for another.
and, m.a.r.s., a civilian group comprised of "ham"/short wave radio operators, who participate with the government in disaster and weather damage situations, and, who, as a net work have direct ties into the federal govt.'s intel apparatus, ... , for another.
the key will be, to whom do these people owe their allegiance? and, it will be to "b.o." obama.
the next question, is how many of them will be federal gs employees, permanantly ensconced on the federal payroll? how many administrators? at what paygrades and levels?
the final question is, how many of them will perform a "law enforcement officer" function, and, as a consequence, how many of them will be armed?
we shall see what he has to say sept. 11, 2009, when he addresses the nation.
it is obvious that he feels he has a "sales" job on his hands, and that he feels that he needs to make a "pitch" to the people to alleviate their fears. otherwise, why not just do this legislatively, through an existing vehicle such as americorps?
americorps was founded in 1994 during the clinton administration.
i would remind you, that if you go to its website, you will find that americorps is interested in --
--community development
--disaster relief
--homeland security, and
--public safety.
these last three subject matters are clearly under the rubric of domestic police functions.
how will an americorps participate in homeland security or public safety without being armed, without performing a paramilitary function?
we shall see what is proposed. my guess is, that the enabling legislation better be read very damned closely.
john jay
p.s. also, americorps is advertising for those interested in--
--ex-offender reentry.
you don't suppose that includes an educational experience to get a person's head right, in rahm emanuel's words, before going back into a socialist paradise, do you?
Posted by: john jay | August 19, 2009 at 05:13 PM
p.s. and, the following illustrates just how "nice" a problem this is, trying to separate the wheat of threat from the chaff of normalcy.
you may consider the boy scouts of america as the quintessential paramilitary group.
lord baden powell, the english founder of the boys scouts was a military commander who thought english troops could use a little toughening up before entering service, and envisioned the scouts to be just the thing to do that. that is why the emphasis upon camping and outdoor living, and field craft and physical hardiness.
even today, explorer scouts perform paramilitary roles, in that they are virtual police officers in training during much of their tenure as scouts.
yet, i think no one perceives the scouts as a threat to liberty.
if, by contrast, a large influx of persons were to occur in an organization dedicated to "homeland security issues," might a genuine concern over their role occur were they to become involved in ferreting out just who those right wing extremists/terrorists are, that attorney general eric holder might feel free to designate, and who might have their civil rights suspened upon such designation, as put forth in legislation propsed by congressman alcee hastings, demo. florida. (the only living impeached federal judge, by the way. doesn't seem to know his constitutional law very well, does he, for an ex-judge?) but, he is good enough to be a democratic congressman, isn't he?
this latter possibility is, in my view, a quick road to hell. jjjay
Posted by: john jay | August 19, 2009 at 05:25 PM